Schools and Communities United Stands in Solidarity with Milwaukee Transit Workers

The following is the speech given by Bob Peterson on July 2, 2015 on behalf of Schools and Communities United at a rally in support of the Milwaukee Transit Workers (ATU) in their struggle for respect and a fair contract.

Hello Milwaukee Transit Workers!

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association and Schools andCommunities United stand in solidarity with you.

Schools and Communities United is a coalition of over 20 community organizations working to improve and defend public schools.

But quality public schools will only happen in healthy neighborhoods. So we fight for both the schools and the communities that our children deserve.

And our children and their families deserve a community with a strong public transit system, a system that treats its workers with respect and dignity and provides adequate compensation.

If it’s public, Gov. Walker and County Executive Abele want it defunded and turned over to private interests. Whether it’s our public university, our public schools, public radio, public TV, public health care, public natural resources, or public transportation — it’s on Walker’s hit list. And all too often it’s on Abele’s hit list as well.

Chris Abele previously collaborated with Walker and Republican legislators to eviscerate the power of the County Board.

Now Abele is collaborating with two suburban legislators -- Senator Darling and Representative Kooyenga to attack the Milwaukee Public Schools. They plan to have Abele appoint a commissioner who would have equal power of the elected school board --  power to take over dozens of  Milwaukee public schools and turn them over to private operators.

These attacks – on Milwaukee Transit Workers and on MPS have two things in common.

First they are attacks on two essential public services like schools and transit that serve ALL people.

Second they are taking place in the most hyper segregated metropolitan area in the nation where white power brokers think they can ride rough shod over communities of color – whether it’s white suburban legislators putting a white County Executive in charge of a commissioner to take over public schools that serve mainly students of color. or whether it’s a white County Executive who ignores the fact that the vast majority of transit workers in this city are African American. I call that racism. 

Schools and Communities United calls on the people of Milwaukee to stand with the Milwaukee transit workers and demand that the all public services be fully funded and kept public!